Welcome back into the world of ArcheAge! Last week I gave you a fresh look at ArcheAge after having played it for a few hours. Since then I've gone gliding, explored further, quested more, and of course got my hands on the crafting system. In terms of news the only new thing we've gotten was last week when Trion Worlds announced their three Founder's Packs.
If you've been following everything ArcheAge and can't wait to get in, then one of the Founder's Packs may appeal to you. There are three founder packs, the Silver, Gold, and Archeum. The silver pack is the cheapest one priced at $49.99; your average price for a PC title. This gets you into the beta, a four day head start, the “Founder” title, a 30 day patron pass, experimental Glider and 2,500 credits to sweeten the deal. When you think about it as buying a new game you may be able to persuade yourself, but what's holding some people back comes down to when the closed and open beta will kick off. Obviously you don't want to find yourself buying into the closed beta and then a month later open beta pops.
)
Next is the Gold Founder's Pack bumping up the price to $99.99. At this point we're thinking premium/collector's edition, we better get some good stuff. While still not getting alpha access, you get beta, the same four day head start, a “Traveler” title, 60 day patron pass, 10 evenstones & 10 hereafter stones, a cool looking glass phoenix hang glider, desert assassin platemail, and last but not least 7,500 credits. While keeping a lot of what you get from the Silver bundle and then upping this and that, it's still not a half bad deal.
Now for the Archeum pack which if you really desire the alpha and haven't managed to win any of Trion's contests for a key, this is where you'll find yourself debating the cost. The Archeum pack costs $149.99, that's right, $149.99. This gets you everything prior, alpha, a “Trailblazer” title, 30 more days on your patron pass, Daru Chests, a Founder's cloak with a customizable logo, a crest, 10 pet healing potions, and 11,250 credits. The big selling point here for everyone I would imagine is alpha access. This also brings us back to my point of when closed beta kicks off, while it has been hinted it may be in June. If this is the case, you could wait one more month and find yourself playing the game with $50 to $100 more in your pocket. I will also note, from what I've gathered, the beta will be running in sessions. I'd imagine weekends similar to Elder Scrolls Online for a basic example. Whereas the alpha won't end once closed beta kicks off, the alpha servers will continue running allowing those in it to continue playing there if they so choose.
)
If you're debating purchasing the Archeum pack to get into the alpha, here's a quick warning. As of the FAQ on Trion's website for ArcheAge, they will eventually lock off the player count for the alpha. Therefore, if enough people purchase the Archeum pack or people get into the alpha one way or another, it can get locked down. They have stated, “Alpha is running on a fixed amount of testing hardware. We may remove Alpha Access from the Archeum Packs feature list at some point in the future.” I'd imagine you'd realize this before purchasing into it blindly, hopefully at least!
Back to the founder's packs as a whole. From the forums here to the forums as ArcheAge Source I've found plenty of people divvying up the cost of the Archeum pack to try and show what you're getting for your money. Obviously, look above and you'll see what you're getting. But more so when you start looking into the value of each bonus. You can look at it like you're paying $30 for alpha, $45 for the Patron subscription bonus, and then the value of the credits puts you at another $75 down. For some people that may not sound like such a bad idea. But I know for myself if I ever find myself spending more than a $100 on a game, I'd have to be really hyped up for the title. I'd have to be one heck of a fan to fork over that money and without a doubt there are plenty of people that I'm sure have jumped at this the second they saw the opportunity.
)
While ArcheAge still hasn't launched, Trion Worlds is exploring monetization methods aside from the cash shop as we can see. Founder's packs have become more popular recently with MMORPG's, whether you're looking to get into an alpha or beta to test it or just get an early experience with the game. Plenty of people are taking this time to prepare for the second ArcheAge releases.
How do you guys feel about the Founder's Packs as a whole and each one individually? I've seen varied opinions everywhere I look. You get people that think it's foolish to put down that much money and then people that are throwing their money at the screen.
Now that we've gotten the big topic of Founder's Packs out of the way, I'd like to jump back to my last article in the column for a moment. As stated and shown, it was a new look on ArcheAge with no experience going on. Now I've been playing ArcheAge further and would like to know what you guys would like to hear about. What feature jumps out at you or information is on your mind that you can't google? Is it crafting, farming, ships, PvP, housing, questing, you name it! I swear, while playing ArcheAge at one point I figured hey, let's see what most of the people are actually doing that are spending most of the time chatting in the faction chat. Upon asking what everyone's been doing I found myself getting tons of responses on farming, “Farm Simulator 2014” seemed to be a popular one. Overall, as I am still a noob to ArcheAge and I don't know what you guys are looking for, let me know. I'll continue to cover news and whatever I find that seems interesting.
)
I will say, the first time I got my glider I was pretty high up on a mountain for mining. I had to run up and down this dark shadowy mountain while fighting off kobolds and mining every iron ore deposit I came across. Finally I get to the top and this robot looking thing hands me a glider, so of course I'm ready to glide the heck down that mountain. Then I look down at my feet and see that I have several quest markers pointing to the side of the mountain still at the top. So I had to delay this epic base jump and go hunt giant “King Rabbits” for a little girl. Next thing you know, I walk just outside of this dark mountain into a green luscious environment... with giant rabbits. In the process of making my way over here I managed to get even higher up on the mountain. Finally it was time to make my jump for the bottom of the mountain.
Racing through my mind was not screwing up my glider after watching Ripper X's first impressions video in which he jumped off a cliff assuming he could activate his glider midair. No bueno. I was smart enough to use my skill before making a leap of faith, this isn't Assassin's Creed after all. While my experimental glider wasn't super fast or anything, it was pretty awesome gliding off of a mountain looking around me at tall trees and other mountains in the distance. I flew straight over a town and finally started flying in toward my current quest hub. Next thing you know, POP, my glider folds up midair and I'm flailing in-game and in real life as I'm plummeting to my death. This is when I realized I could only glide for three minutes and practically died! Fortunately I fell right next to an NPC and finished my quest. It's the little things!
)
I'm still looking further into getting a ship, joining a guild, and really experiencing the crafting. I've found myself doing the occasional crafting, but otherwise I've been primarily following the questline leading to me getting more of a themepark experience from ArcheAge. As far as I can tell, the questing isn't anything fancy and can get a bit boring. But you have to level somehow that's for sure. In the process of leveling and finally getting all three of my skillsets settled, I decided to grab the Songcraft skillset. Best decision ever, your skills lead to you playing whatever musical instrument you have equipped. It can be playing a lute for 10 seconds to buff up some allies or playing a flute to stun an enemy. Either way, it's a neat skillset I'd have to say.
There you have it folks, my beautiful rambling that managed to go in several directions. As I mentioned feel free to comment below your thoughts on ArcheAge and the founder's packs. Also tell me what stands out to you about ArcheAge and what you want to hear more about! I'm here to cater to you and inform you as much as possible. While this time the column was two weeks in a row, the next entry will be on May 13th assuming everything stays on schedule!
Jeffrey Lerman / Jeff can be found playing games 99% of the time, with the 1% being writing about them. Feel free to follow his banter on Twitter @Snakester95.
